Washington Payroll Instructions

Washington State Withholding Instructions

To enter withholding information for a Washington employee, follow these steps:

1. Open the Payroll tab on the left, and choose Employees.
2. Locate the employee's record.
3. Click the Payroll Setup button.
4. Enter the employee's marital status into the Marital Status field (see note below).
5. Enter the number of federal dependents into the Federal Exemptions field.
6. Enter a Washington Tax Package into the Tax Package field, based on the employee’s W4 form. Choose Old W4 for pre-2020 forms. Choose New W4 Step2- if they did not check the box in step 2 of the new form. Choose Step2+ if they did check it. HINT: If you don't see Washington packages in the list, you'll need to import 2022 tax info first.
7. Click OK.

Washington Industrial Insurance & Disability

The state of Washington provides disability insurance and worker's compensation coverage. The coverage rates are based on the type of work done by your employees. To calculate the amount to pay, you'll need to fill in the current Industrial Insurance rates for the types of work you do. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Open the Setup tab on the left, open Categories, and choose Category Systems.
2. Double-click on a Category System.
3. The Comp Rate for each category handles the Industrial Insurance rate, and the Tax Rate handles disabiility insurance costs. Enter the rates you pay for each type of work. If you use subcategories for job costing, you'll also need to enter the rates for each subcategory.
4. Turn off the Comp Rate as Percent and Tax Rate as Percent checkboxes, since Washington uses a fixed hourly dollar amount for insurance and disability rates.
5. When you are finished setting up rates in a Category System, click OK to save changes.
6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for each Category System that you use.

When you enter Labor Hours records, enter the work category into the Category field. When you write payroll, Goldenseal will automatically use the correct rate for each type of work.

Washington State Unemployment Tax Instructions

In 2022, Washington charges new employers a SUTA tax on wages up to $67,600 per year (an increase from the previous year's cutoff amount of $62,500). The rate for new companies varies, depending on industry rate class. The rate for established companies also varies, depending on the employer's rate class and experience rating.

To enter your company's unemployment insurance rate into Goldenseal payroll accounting software, follow these steps:

1. Choose Payroll Setup from the Costs menu, and choose Tax Items.
2. You'll see a list of Tax Items. Open the Washington SUTA item. HINT: If you don't see Washington SUTA in the list, you'll need to import your state's payroll info first.
3. Click your mouse in the percentage field to the right of Calculation method. and type in the SUTA percentage rate for your business.
4. If the cutoff amount has changed, enter it into the field to the right of First Adjustment.

Washington Marital Status

Enter one of the following value into the Marital Status popup field in each Employee account:

• Single- single employee with one personal exemption
• Married- married employee with two personal exemptions
• Dual Income- married employee with one personal exemption
• Head of House- employee claims Head of Family status
• Other- not used

State Tax Contacts

Website

Official State Lawn Ornament

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